But Darling, Most of All
by SousLeStylo
Summary: [Oneshot] In which James persuades Lily to cast aside her denial and really, truly realize…well, what he loves the most. R&R please.


**A/N:** This is a very short dialogue between Lily Evans and James Potter, in which James persuades Lily to cast aside her denial and really, truly realize…well, what he loves the most.

I'm not a big fan of song-based fan fiction, but I couldn't stop listening to Jeff Magnum's "I Love How You Love Me", which is a cover, Iknow.Anyway, up came this fic, and I do hope you enjoy it. Review if you'd like.

**Disclaimer:** Most assuredly not mine.

**But Darling, Most of All…**

They stood in the back of the classroom, watching the professor stun several pixies as an example to the seventh year Defense Against the Dark Arts class. The process enthralled the students—especially when several pixies began to attack the professor. They hardly noticed the two students standing next to one another in the back of the group.

Lily Evans didn't like to admit it, but standing this close to James made her blood rush—he hadn't come near her in two months and now suddenly there he was. And James Potter didn't like to admit it, but he was quickly loosing the control over the feelings that he thought he'd conquered two months before.

Lily watched as the students tried to stun the pixies around the professor, and slowly she stepped back further into the room and away from the group, her hand accidentally brushing James's.

James stepped back as well, so that his shoulder gently bumped against Lily's. When the contact was made, and Lily did nothing but smile at the scene in front of her, James bent his head and whispered into her auburn hair, forgetting all about the control he had had only moments ago.

"I have to tell you Lily, I love how your eyes close whenever you kiss me."

Lily glanced at James quickly and whispered back, "It was only those two times, and they were mistakes. I thought we'd both forgotten about them."

But James ignored her remark and continued softly, "And when I'm away from you, I love how you miss me."

Lily turned her green eyes back to the class in front of them. "I don't miss you. I just…wonder what prank you are probably out pulling."

Again James ignored her remarks, and whispered so that her hair moved with his breathing, "I love how your kisses are always heavenly."

Lily frowned and tried to ignore the pixies that seemed to have migrated into her stomach. She murmured, "Under the mistletoe doesn't count as a kiss, you know."

"I love how your heart beats whenever I hold you."

She tried, without success, to ignore his hand that was carefully wrapping around her own. "You don't hold me James. Well, there was that time in the Forbidden Forest—but those were centaurs. And that night in the corridor. And, yes, that time in the common room, but like I said, those two kisses were mistakes, and so was the…er, hug."

"Lily," whispered James quietly, "I love how you think of me, without being told to."

"Well it's rather hard not to, what with you being a prat most of the time."

As soon as she said it, Lily wished she hadn't. She hadn't called him a prat, an arse, or an arrogant something-or-another for four months, and decided that she wasn't about to ruin that control she had over herself.

James had Lily's hand tightly grasped in his own and was slowly backing toward the door of the classroom, as the students in the room began to gain the upper hand on the pixies. Lily was tugged with him, and she followed, trying to ignore him when he continued to whisper to her.

"I love how your touches are always tenderly."

"Except when I knock you on the head with a text book," Lily retorted.

James opened the door to the classroom quietly, so that not one of the students in the room noticed, and smiled at Lily. "Well, of course."

Lily swallowed and realized that she and James were now standing in the empty corridor. Behind the door to the classroom they had just left came muted cries of triumph from the students. In front of her, James was smiling; his mouth crooked like it always was when he was up to something.

Lily wanted to roll her eyes and scream at him and ask him just what in the bloody hell he thought he was doing pulling her out there…but the words didn't come forth. She just stared at him.

He looked so…calm and quiet—standing there, staring right back at her. His chest rose and fell, and she fleetingly remembered what he'd been saying as he whispered into her hair.

"So," she said slowly, staring down at her small hand enclosed in his larger one. "You love it when I close my eyes and kiss you, even though both times were big mistakes on both our parts, and we will probably always regret them?"

James smiled and nodded.

"And you love that I miss you, even when you are off playing a prank that I'm only going to try and dock points from you for?" Again James nodded, stepping forward so that Lily moved back toward the wall of the empty corridor.

"You love that my heart beats so much that you can feel it pound in your own chest whenever, by some act of Merlin, you manage to hug me?"

James didn't say anything to Lily, but stopped moving forward when her back met the stone wall.

"And you, James, even love it when I hit you over the head with a book?"

The pixies in Lily's stomach did something unusual, and Lily was sure that they had gone and multiplied a hundredfold. If her heart hadn't been beating wildly before, it was then. And if she'd been afraid to admit just what James did to her, she certainly wasn't anymore.

James grinned and ducked his head. When he looked back up, his eyes were shining with something more than the usual mischievousness.

He leaned his head forward and whispered softly to Lily before covering her mouth with his own, "Yes Lily, I love all of those things. But darling, most of all, I love how you love me."


End file.
